Dachau concentration camp (German: Konzentrationslager Dachau or
KZ-Dachau) was the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany,
located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the
medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 miles) northwest of Munich
in the state of Bavaria which is located in southern Germany.

Opened in March 1933, it was the first regular concentration camp
established by the coalition government of National Socialist
(Nazi) NSDAP party and the German Nationalist People\´s party
(dissolved on 6 July 1933). Heinrich Himmler, Chief of Police of
Munich, officially described the camp as "the first concentration
camp for political prisoners."

Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi
concentration camps that followed. Almost every community in
Germany had members taken away to these camps, and as early as 1935
there were jingles warning:

"Dear God, make me dumb,
that I may not to Dachau come."

Its basic organization, camp layout as well as the plan for the
buildings were developed by Kommandant Theodor Eicke and were
applied to all later camps. He had a separate secure camp near the
command center, which consisted of living quarters, administration,
and army camps. Eicke himself became the chief inspector for all
concentration camps, responsible for molding the others according
to his model.

In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were
housed in Dachau of whom two-thirds were political prisoners and
nearly one-third were Jews.25,613 prisoners are believed to have
died in the camp and almost another 10,000 in its subcamps,
primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide. In early 1945,
there was a typhus epidemic in the camp followed by an evacuation,
in which large numbers of the weaker prisoners died.

Together with the much larger Auschwitz, Dachau has come to
symbolize the Nazi concentration camps to many people.
Konzentrationslager (KZ) Dachau holds a significant place in public
memory because it was the second camp to be liberated by British or
American forces. Therefore, it was one of the first places where
the West was exposed to the reality of Nazi brutality through
firsthand journalist accounts and through newsreels.

The camp was divided into two sections: the camp area and the
crematorium. The camp area consisted of 32 barracks, including one
for clergy imprisoned for opposing the Nazi regime and one reserved
for medical experiments. The courtyard between the prison and the
central kitchen was used for the summary execution of prisoners.
The camp was surrounded by an electrified barbed-wire gate, a
ditch, and a wall with seven guard towers.

In early 1937, the SS, using prisoner labor, initiated construction
of a large complex of buildings on the grounds of the original
camp. Prisoners were forced to do this work, starting with the
destruction of the old munitions factory, under terrible
conditions. The construction was officially completed in mid-August
1938 and the camp remained essentially unchanged and in operation
until 1945. Dachau thus was the longest running concentration camp
of the Third Reich. The area in Dachau included other SS facilities
beside the concentration camp—a leader school of the economic
and civil service, the medical school of the SS, etc. The KZ at
that time was called a "protective custody camp," and occupied less
than half of the area of the entire complex.

Dachau also served as the central camp for Christian religious
prisoners. According to records of the Roman Catholic Church, at
least 3,000 preachers, deacons, priests, and bishops were
imprisoned there.

In August 1944 a women´s camp opened inside Dachau. Its first
shipment of women came from Auschwitz Birkenau. Only 19 women
guards served at Dachau, most of them until liberation. Sources
show the names of sixteen of the nineteen women guarding the camp;
Fanny Baur, Leopoldine Bittermann, Ernestine Brenner, Anna Buck,
Rosa Dolaschko, Maria Eder, Rosa Grassmann, Betty Hanneschaleger,
Ruth Elfriede Hildner, Josefa Keller, Berta Kimplinger, Lieselotte
Klaudat, Theresia Kopp, Rosalie Leimboeck, and Thea Miesl. Women
guards were also staffed at the Augsburg Michelwerke, Burgau,
Kaufering, Mühldorf, and Munich Agfa Camera Werke subcamps. In
mid-April 1945 many female subcamps at Kaufering, Augsburg and
Munich closed, and the SS women stationed at Dachau. It is reported
that female SS guards gave prisoners guns before liberation to save
them from postwar prosecution.

In the last months of the war, the conditions at Dachau became even
worse. As Allied forces advanced toward Germany, the Germans began
to move prisoners in concentration camps near the front to more
centrally located camps. They hoped to prevent the liberation of
large numbers of prisoners. Transports from the evacuated camps
arrived continuously at Dachau. After days of travel with little or
no food or water, the prisoners arrived weak and exhausted, often
near death. Typhus epidemics became a serious problem as a result
of overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, insufficient provisions,
and the weakened state of the prisoners.

Owing to continual new transportations from the front, the camp was
constantly overcrowded and the hygiene conditions were beneath
human dignity. Starting from the end of 1944 up to the day of
liberation, 15,000 people died, about half of all victims in KZ
Dachau. Five hundred Soviet POWs were executed by firing squad.

On 24 April, 1945 about 140 prominent inmates, such as Leon Blum,
Martin Niemöller and Franz Halder, were transferred to Tyrol, where
the SS left the prisoners behind. They were liberated by the Fifth
U.S. Army on May 5, 1945 in Niederdorf, Italy[10].

On 27 April, 1945 Victor Maurer, delegate of the International
Committee of the Red Cross, was allowed to enter camps and
distribute food. In the evening of the same day a prisoner
transport arrived from Buchenwald. Only 800 survivors were brought
from the original 4,480 to 4,800 prisoners in transit. Over 2,300
corpses were left lying in and around the train. The last regular
commander of the KZ, Obersturmbannführer Eduard Weiter, had fled on
26 April. He probably followed Obersturmbannführer Martin Gottfried
Weiss, who had led the camp from September 1942 until November
1943.

On 28 April, 1945, the day before the surrender, Camp Commandant
Martin Gottfried Weiss had left the Dachau camp, along with most of
the regular guards and administrators in the camp. On that same
day, Victor Maurer, a representative of the Red Cross, had tried to
persuade Untersturmführer Johannes Otto, the adjutant of Commandant
Weiss, not to abandon the camp, but to leave guards posted to keep
the prisoners inside until the Americans arrived. Maurer feared
that the prisoners would escape en masse and spread the active
typhus fever epidemic. Lt. Otto declined to remain and fled.

Satellite Camps / Sub Camps

By 1944, Dachau had many satellite camps separate from the main
camp, mostly to produce armaments. [11] A website has been created
at kaufering.com about the eleven \"Kaufering\" camps, but states
there were as many as 200 \"Sub camps\". [12] There is also a site,
survivors-landsberg.com for an association of survivors of the
camps. See also the wikipedia page, Kaufering concentration
camp